Category Archives: Travel Guides
Villages of Britain
Whilst conventional historiography tends to focus on the role of cities in the formation of Britain, Clive Aslet’s ‘Villages of Britain” takes a fresh approach, examining the role of the five hundred villages that have shaped the British countryside. Discover the Bedfordshire village that is home to the zeppelin, and the North Yorkshire village of
Beyond Nose to Tail: A Kind of British Cooking: Part II
`It would be disingenuous to the animal not to make the most of the whole beast; there is a set of delights, textural and flavoursome, which lie beyond the fillet.` In this new collection of recipes, Fergus Henderson, award-winning author of Nose to Tail Eating, inspires with more carnivorous classics such as deep-fried rabbit, pigeon
Around The World In 90 Minutes
Whilst only relatively few football fans managed to get a match ticket for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, billions of people watched it on TV screens all around the globe. Acclaimed football writer David Winner decided it was time to get off his sofa and join them. His quest: to circle the globe in
Setting the Desert on Fire
It is 1916. The Allies are struggling in the Great War. The Ottoman Sultan calls for a pan-Islamic jihad against all non-Muslims except Germans. But Sharif Husein, ruler of the holy city of Mecca, is smarting under Turkish rule, fomenting Arab nationalism and lobbying the British to support him. It seems to the British a
A Hedonist in the Cellar
Jay McInerney, internationally celebrated author of Bright Lights, Big City, turns his hand here to his lifelong love affair with wine. Peals of wisdom are offered on the subjects of the best wine for romantics, the parallels between Californian wines and floundering Hollywood stars, the choice of wine for the author`s own debauched forty-eighth birthday
The Longest Crawl
The British love their booze. Ian Marchant – bon viveur, pub singer and writer – sets off to map the British landscape in drink. This mission takes Ian and his friend Perry on a gruelling month-long pub crawl, from the Turk`s Head on the Scilly Isles to the Baa Bar in the Shetlands, taking in
Divisadero
It is the 1970s in Northern California. A farmer and his teenage daughters, Anna and Claire, work the land with the help of Coop, the enigmatic young man who lives with them. Theirs` is a makeshift family, until they are riven by an incident of violence – of both hand and heart – that `sets
In the Miso Soup
It`s just before New Year, and Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo`s nightlife. But, Frank`s behaviour is so odd that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have murderous desires. Although Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly
Desertion
Early one morning in 1899, in a small town along the coast from Mombasa, Hassanali sets out for the mosque. But he never gets there, for out of the desert stumbles an ashen and exhausted Englishman who collapses at his feet. That man is Martin Pearce – writer, traveller and something of an Orientalist. After
Minaret
In her Muslim hijab, with her down-turned gaze, Najwa is invisible to most eyes, especially to the rich London families whose houses she cleans. But twenty years earlier, it was a different story. Najwa was at university in Khartoum and, as an upper-class westernized Sudanese, and her dreams were to marry well and raise a
Voltaire Almighty, A Life in Pursuit of Freedom
During much of his life Voltaire`s plays and verse made him the toast of society, but his barbed wit and commitment to reason also got him into trouble. Jailed twice and eventually banished by the King, he was an outspoken critic of religious intolerance and persecution. His personal life was as colourful as his intellectual
Benjamin Franklin and the Birth of America 1776-1785
Six months after America declared her independence, Congress dispatched Benjamin Franklin to France to solicit aid and arms for the upcoming fight. He was seventy years old, possessed of the most rudimentary French and had no diplomatic training. But this most remarkable of envoys was also among the most famous men in the world. During
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Two magicians shall appear in England. The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me. The year is 1806. England is beleaguered by the long war with Napoleon, and centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation`s past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive
Get A Life
When Paul Bannerman, an ecologist in Africa, is diagnosed with cancer and prescribed treatment that makes him radioactive, his suddenly fragile existence makes him question his life for the first time. He is especially struck by the contradiction in values of his work as a conservationist and that of his wife, an advertising agency executive.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Lily is the daughter of a humble farmer, and to her family she is just another expensive mouth to feed. Then the local matchmaker delivers startling news: if Lily`s feet are bound properly, they will be flawless. In nineteenth-century China, where a woman`s eligibility is judged by the shape and size of her feet, this
Come Back To Afghanistan
Said Hyder Akbar`s ordinary suburban Californian life was turned upside-down after September 11th. Hyder`s father, a scion of an Afghan political family, left for Afghanistan to become the new president`s chief spokesman and later the governor of Kunar, a rural province. Obsessed since childhood with a country he had never visited, seventeen-year-old Hyder convinced his
Ghost Town – Tales of Manhattan Then and Now
Ghost Town – Tales of Manhattan Then and Now is Patrick McGrath’s trio of stories weaves together different layers of narrative to give an incredible understanding of New York’s turbulent history:A man is haunted by the memory of his mother of his mother with a rope round her neck. It is the American War of
The Little Friend
Twelve-year-old Harriet is doing her best to grow up, which is not easy as her mother is permanently on medication, her father has silently moved to another city, and her serene sister rarely notices anything. All of them are still suffering from the shocking and mysterious death of her brother Robin twelve years earlier, and
Story of My Life
It is party time in eighties Manhattan. Smart, sassy and cynical, Alison lives for the moment. Her life is a carnival of gossip and midnight sessions of Truth or Dare, and her cocaine-bashing friends and flirting flatmates all crave satiation. Young and beautiful, hip and indulgent, sex-crazed and alcohol-fuelled, Alison can neither pay her fees
The Rum Diary
Paul Kemp has moved from New York to the steamy heat of Puerto Rico to work at the Daily News. He starts hanging out at Al`s Backyard, a local den selling booze and hamburgers to vagrant journalists who are mostly crazy drunks on the verge of quitting. Then he meets Yeamon, whose delectable girlfriend has
